In terms of talent, 18-year-old Ryan Murphy was good enough to crack the lineup of the Carolina Hurricanes this fall.

But as an undersized — albeit highly skilled — defenceman, the decision was made by Carolina GM Jim Rutherford to send him back to the OHL Kitchener Rangers.

“Part of what we were thinking, ironically, was that we wanted to protect him a little bit until he was readier to play against bigger and stronger guys,” said Rutherford on Monday.

That cautious intent on the part of the Canes backfired on Friday when Murphy, in a hit eerily reminiscent of the infamous Michael Liambas hit on Kitchener’s Ben Fanelli two years ago that left Fanelli with a fractured skull, was steamrolled by Tomas Kuhnhackl of the Niagara IceDogs and left writhing on the ice in agony.

Murphy, an Aurora native picked 12th overall in the NHL draft last June and expected to be a fixture with the Canadian entry at this year’s world junior championships in Alberta, was left with a concussion. The Rangers reported he is in “complete shutdown mode.” for the time being.

That such an elite prospect has been sidelined with what was clearly a violent head shot will have reverberations beyond Murphy’s immediate future.

For starters, Kuhnhackl was suspended indefinitely and a more finite ban will be handed down Tuesday. Liambas’ hit on Fanelli happened on Oct. 30, 2009, and Liambas, then of the Erie Otters, was suspended for the rest of the season.

In this case, it’s believed Murphy’s injury is not as as severe. But in August, OHL governors authorized league president David Branch to crack down even harder on head shots despite the fact the OHL already has a zero tolerance policy for head shots in place, unlike the NHL.

This season, Branch has already handed down seven suspensions for 10 games or more, with 10 games apparently now the minimum. Right now, Oshawa forward Ranger draft pick Christian Thomas, son of former Leaf winger Steve Thomas, is serving a 10-game ban for swinging his stick at an opponent’s head, while Kyle Flemington of the London Knights, a repeat offender, received a 15-gamer.

Kuhnhackl, son of famed German star Erich Kuhnhackl and a fourth round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins, received a charging major and game misconduct and will get at least a 10 game suspension, that seems certain.

While the NHL under new sheriff Brendan Shanahan is back to handing out smaller suspensions and fines after a series of eye-catching disiplinary decisions in the pre-season — Shanahan would argue the players have taken notice and are behaving better — the OHL has traditionally taken a much harder line on violence than the NHL and is doing so again this season with a new standard for head-shot suspensions.

The Kuhnhackl hit is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, Kitchener goalie John Gibson briefly touched the puck as it rolled back into the Rangers zone but had to leave it for Murphy for fear of illegally playing the puck outside of the trapezoid behind the net. This seems a clear case of where removing the trapezoid could serve to help protect defencemen retrieving pucks deep in their own zone.

Second, the hit occurred behind the Kitchener net in almost the exact spot that Liambas hit Fanelli. It’s the same area that sparked controversy in the NHL playoffs last spring when Raffi Torres of the Canucks drilled Chicago’s Brent Seabrook in the head but was not suspended because it was apparently deemed a “hitting zone” under the league’s rules.

Finally, it wasn’t clear whether Kuhnhackl intentionally left his feet, but rather this seems more along the lines of that which the NFL is trying to crack down on, which is a high hit on a player deemed to be “defenceless.” Murphy actually missed picking up the puck and didn’t have it when he was hit.

The OHL has followed Shanahan’s lead by recording videos of disciplinary decisions and posting them on the league’s web site, so the Branch’s reasoning will be interesting on the decision.

Murphy may now be a question mark for the world juniors, and Carolina has to be concerned as well. Rutherford, interestingly, is one of a handful of NHL general managers who would like to see the NHL institute a rule similar to the OHL’s for head shots, one that would come with an automatic two-minute minor for any contact to the head.

“I’ve always been a proponent of that,” said Rutherford. “I think we have to protect heads. Players will adjust their hits.”

That’s the hope. The reality, however, seems to be lagging somewhat behind.

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